Requiem
by Danyu
Summary: A Spirit Detective falls in battle and his friends and loved ones remember him. Set during the Sensui battle. Written from multiple character perspectives. COMPLETE.
1. Kazuma

**Requiem **

By Dan'yu

**Chapter One: Kazuma**

It couldn't be true.

The moment he watched Urameshi hit the ground, his body gone limp and still, his heart and body froze. The world seemed to move in slow motion, every ragged breath, twitch of muscle, the thundering of his heart slowed to the point of nearly nonexistence.

His mind was sluggish, lethargic, struggling to form a single coherent thread of thought through the shock induced haze. Thought and feeling fought to banish the numbness, to penetrate the ice that surrounded him. He was so cold. Everything had gone so cold.

"N-no…" A single word fell from his lips as feeling came back to him, his body trembling in the aftershock. The broken voice reaching his ears hardly resembled his own, and yet he knew he had been the one to speak, his desperate attempt to deny what was so blatantly real before him.

_No. No…no…no. No, no, **NO!**_

_Urameshi!_

Images flew through his mind faster than he could consciously recall, memories he held so close to his heart.

Barely two years before, he had known him by little more than name. Yusuke Urameshi. Only fourteen years old and already a legend. Rumors about him had run rampant around the local gangs, stories of an invincible thug with a vicious eye and a mean right hook. Kuwabarra was enraptured by the tales of the Urameshi, exaggerated as they were. Curiosity became fascination, quickly growing into a desperation bordering on obsession when the matter came down to Yusuke Urameshi. With every fight, every wisecrack and pummeling sent his way, every defeat he suffered, his determination to meet Urameshi in battle as an equal only continued to grow.

Honor and strength were two ideals Kazuma Kuwabarra held highest in his world, and Yusuke Urameshi became the living epitome of those ideals in his eyes. Their fights became more than physical struggles, battles of brute strength. He wanted to beat Urameshi, of course, but there were so many more reasons why he challenged the other again and again, knowing all too well just how much of a brutally strong bastard Urameshi was.

Some kind of common thread drew them together, something that linked them beyond the need of acknowledgement or words. They spoke through their fists, and that communication was violence, fierce in its brutality and turbulent in its intensity. Urameshi spoke that way, with grace and strength and confidence that was awe-inspiring. Kuwabarra fought for the sake of one thing: to bring himself on level ground with this otherworldly ruffian.

There was something so utterly human about this boy he made his rival, a candid kind of sincerity that both repelled and drew people to him. Kuwabarra found himself willing drawn into the storm that was Yusuke Urameshi.

Their rivalry made the rather rough transition into friendship, and the rest was history. Urameshi had become such an integral part of his life without him even realizing it, and that final transition came when he was the least suspecting.

People respected him in some ways, for his strength, his sense of loyalty, the code of honor he held in such high esteem. But people looked down upon him, lack of brains, lack of skill, a bumbling idiot who could never measure up. Until Urameshi. Urameshi made him feel more that inadequate, motivated him to better himself, to strive to be something greater. Urameshi saw him as an equal.

He couldn't believe it. He refused to believe that he had lost the one person who made the man he was. He refused to believe he had lost his best friend.

It was a joke. Right? It had to be a joke. Urameshi was just pulling his leg, giving him the payback for the Toguro tournament. It was just a joke.

Except that there was no pulse in his best friend's neck, no steady beating of a heart in his chest, no breath gently exhaling from bloodied lips.

Yusuke Urameshi was dead.

The cold, numb nothingness began to melt away, the rush of molten heat that accompanied rage enveloped him in the arms of devastation.

Denial faded into vengeance, and the battle for a fallen hero began.


	2. Kurama

**Requiem **

By Dan'yu

**Chapter Two: Kurama**

Death.

The scent, the stifling, sinister stink of it, was unmistakable; it had been since they had first entered these caverns, filling the whole place with the wrenching aroma of pain and misery, spelling out their doom from the moment they set foot into Sensui's clutches. He had wanted so desperately to attribute that stench to the maniac's sinister plans, plans that could bring about the end of the entire human race.

As he watched Yusuke Urameshi's lifeless body hit the ground, motionless from his opponent's last attack, he knew suddenly why this place smelled so strongly of death.

The spirits had predicted the fate of their detective and hero.

His mind wandered back, to the memories of their first real meeting, when he had been consumed with the desire to save his mother, when he had faced the man intent on bringing him to justice for his crimes and instead he had begged for the chance to use the Mirror of Forlorn Hope, all in hopes of curing the illness that was quickly stealing away the life of his dear mother.

But Urameshi had shocked him, when he threw himself at Kurama's side at the last moment, demanding from the spirit of the mirror that he should take Kurama's place in the sacrifice required to save Shiori Minamoto's life.

The Mirror had seen the selflessness of his actions, and rewarded them both with their lives intact, Shiori's health restored. In return, Kurama aided the Spirit Detective in his battle with Hiei, even at the cost of betraying his partnership with Hiei.

The great Youko had been devious, sly, arrogant, and far too proud for his own good, a thief, but in his own way, he had been honorable. He could not led any favor done for him go unpaid, and the same sense of duty had developed in his human form, Shuichi.

Memories fought at the edge of his consciousness, fighting for dominance, for remembrance, his time as Youko, his time as Shuichi, and his years of friendship with Yusuke.

For countless centuries, as Youko, he had been a cold, ruthless, uncaring proud creature who ravaged, pillaged, and stole, perfecting his thieving skills for the sake of his own thrill and pride. When the kitsune youkai made a nearly fateful miscalculation, he had manipulated his own fate, inhabiting the dying unborn child of a ningen woman in order to save his own life. For the first ten years or so, he was the pride and joy of Shiori Minamoto and her husband, and yet he treated them with indifferent disgust, looking down at them as inferior beings, nothing more than a means to his end.

He had seen Shiori's grief as her husband passed away, and he had begun to feel his first pangs of human emotion, the slightest stirrings of sympathy for the woman's pain. Over the years, her constant devotion and sacrifices for him had changed everything about him. His cause for being, his choice to remain human, all of it originated in a slight, simple ningen woman stronger than he could ever be, merely because she loved him so completely as her son.

Kurama had seen that same selflessness displayed by Yusuke, and he had been intrigued. The other young man was aware of his past as a youkai, as a thief, he had told him everything about his tangled history with Shiori, and Yusuke had accepted him still, with seamless ease he had earned the respect and friendship of this brazen young human where so many others would have turned away.

Yusuke Urameshi would always have his gratitude and his loyalty. He watched Kuwabarra beside the prostate form of his best friend, and Kurama closed his eyes against the threat of tears, remembering the gallant courage of one extraordinary human. His teammate, his friend, a hero.

There was a reason why this place permeated the scent of death. This time, it foretold the fate of Yusuke's killer. This hero would be avenged.


	3. Hiei

**Requiem **

By Dan'yu

**Chapter Three: Hiei**

Ningens were odd creatures.

Hiei contemplated this thought, as he considered the way Yusuke had thrown his life away, knowing what his fate was to be as he faced Sensui's last blast of Rei-ki without defense, as he watched the way the oaf prostrated himself before the detective's fallen body, anguish and rage rolling off of him in such intense waves no empathy was needed to interpret them.

Beside Hiei himself, he saw Kurama, the one fool he had always admired for his quick calculation and his levelheaded nature, begin to tremble slightly, emerald green eyes dark with sorrow.

Hiei contemplated this, mentally searching for the logic behind the intensity of their emotional response, and he considered once more.

Originally, he had faced Yusuke Urameshi in battle as an enemy, and the outcome of their fight had been his own shame of defeat and his outrage at Kurama's betrayal. Afterward, when Koemna had approached him with the offer of erasing his infamous record in exchange for aiding Urameshi on his future mission, Hiei had not refused, purely of selfish motivation. But later, as the months dragged on, and he continued to fight at Urameshi's side again and again, he could deny to himself all he wanted, but deep down, his reason for fighting with the other three was no longer purely for his own interests.

Yusuke was strong, proud, arrogant in his own right; all the attributes of a youkai warrior. He was an admirable fighter, and Hiei respected him for that, for his strength, his courage, and even for his compassion.

They all fought for a purpose, something that drove each of them to struggle so hard through each and every battle. Kurama fought with for the sake of his mother, Kuwabarra, for the sake of his friends and family, Yusuke shouldered the enormous burden of protecting the fate of the entire human race again and again, dwindled down in his own heart to protect the love felt for him by one special girl. Hiei could close his eyes, and wonder about what purpose he had followed for so long, and the gentle face of his sister would appear, sweet, innocent Yukina.

There was no need and no way to understand the intricacies of human nature with logic, but rationality had little place in their consciousness, only emotion. Pride and compassion ruled the man that was Yusuke Urameshi, and Hiei could not fault him for it. Instead of weakness, he saw strength, and he was proud to have called him comrade.

Slowly, Hiei unwound the wrap to his Jagan, feeling the familiar aura of reiki washing over him as he powered up and stepped forward to join his teammates. He too, would defend the memory of an admirable warrior who had died in honor, strength, and pride.


	4. Koenma

**Requiem**

By Dan'yu

**Chapter Four: Koemna**

For nearly seven millennia, he had been a conscious being, an apparition of Reikai, neither fully alive nor fully dead, neither lethally mortal nor eternally immortal. For nearly seven millennia, he had been smothered by his father's shadow, his endless millennia of legacy, of power and majesty he could never hope to measure up to. For nearly seven millennia, he had served the King Enma, his father, as caretaker of Ningenkai, the human realm, the mortal realm, from which he continuously drew his needed subordinates, those powerful in Reiki and moral sense who could help him to protect the mortal world, and in that sense he created the Reikai Tantei.

He wasn't strong. For all his power, all his immortality, all the authority and privilege that came with his birthright, he was pathetically weak. He must be, to continually have the need to send others to do his dirty work. It was the same way with every Reikai Tantei he had selected in the past, and every one he would choose in the future. He who weighed life and death in his hands every day could not face it himself, for he was a coward and a hypocrite.

He wasn't supposed to feel. Of all his father's lessons, that one was the most clear. He was not supposed to feel for the mortals that he judged, nor those who served as his tools, but he did feel for them, and his punishment would be his eternity, forever with the guilt gnawing at his traitorous heart. He had failed Shinobu, and now he had failed Yusuke.

For Yusuke's sake, for the sake of humanity itself, he would not let himself be weak again. He had to be strong. He could not fail again.

The world could not afford another failure from their protector.


	5. Keiko

**Requiem**

By Dan'yu

**Chapter Five: Keiko**

She held Puu's limp, lifeless form in her arms, and she could not stop the tears from falling, nor her helpless scream of his name. Yusuke, Yusuke. Why him, why now, why again? She couldn't bring herself to believe it, to believe he was really gone. For all his strength, for all his sacrifice, was an early death the only fate in store for him?

She remembered the first time, the first time he had left her. She had been so hopelessly longing for him just to come back, just to hear him say her name, or see him pull another stupid prank. Then, like now, the tears had fallen like rain and would not stop, for she could not bring herself to accept that he was fully gone.

She loved him so completely, there was no end to the strange feelings of tenderness and affection and passion he invoked inside her, oblivious to everything she felt for him. Now, now she would never get a chance to tell him. Now, his place in her life, ingrained so deeply into her world as he had always been, would be an empty chasm, a hole in her heart she could never fill again.

The world suddenly felt like such an empty, lonely place without Yusuke beside her.


End file.
